We've all had that co-worker at some point: superficially charming, supremely self-confident but they'll walk over anyone to get ahead and not feel a second's remorse.

Perhaps, after you were burnt yet again, you half-joked that they must have a personality disorder.

Today, experts believe it's very possible that your colleague is a psychopath.

Groundbreaking research presented at the Australian Psychology Society Congress in Melbourne this week reveals that one in five corporate workers may have the disorder - as many as in the prison population.

Forensic psychologist Nathan Brooks found that psychopathic traits are common in the upper echelons of the corporate world, with a prevalence of between three and 21 per cent (the latter in a study of supply chain professionals).

The term "successful psychopath" describes high-flyers with psychopathic traits such as insincerity, a lack of empathy or remorse, egocentric, charming and superficial.

Brooks says it has emerged in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, prompting new research and insight.

Psychopaths are over-represented in the criminal justice system, and we traditionally associate the term with twisted serial killers.

But the typical traits are also highly suited to getting ahead in the business world.

"Usually psychopaths seem pretty normal," Scott Lilienfeld from Atlanta's Emory University, who is also presenting on the topic at the APS Congress, told news.com.au.

Clinical psychologist George Simon said that Trump is “so classic that I’m archiving video clips of him to use in workshops because there’s no better example of his characteristics.” He conducts lectures and seminars on manipulative behavior exhibited by narcissists, psychopaths and sociopaths – all related Anti Social Personality Disorders. “Otherwise, I would have had to hire actors and write vignettes. He’s like a dream come true.”

Carol Caldwell notes, in D.J. Trump, Psychopath, that “it’s been attested to by psychologists and neurobiologists who study psycho- and sociopaths that the deadly syndrome can be seen in their eyes.”

She observes that “the eyes are described as affectless, what we would call cold, or eerily blank in one-on-one or televised exchanges. The sociopath is described as charming, out-going, intelligent, cunning, winning without warmth, but adaptable to whatever human kindness you telegraph to them. As we well know, many of them ascend to top positions in major industries, I might mention Wall Street and banking, heads of Hollywood studios, and members of Congress.